Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0584
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324338.
Transliteration
1(disz) tug2 al-la-tum gun3-a u3 zi-ta? ki-la2-bi 9(disz) ma-[na] 1(u) 2(disz) gin2 2(disz) gu-a-nu-ri nu-ur2-iszkur maszkim zi-ga giri3 szu-kab-ta ki asz-ta2-qar-ta ba-zi iti u5-bi2-gu7 mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu mu us2-sa-bi szu-kab-ta2 a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 sukkal i3-du8 szu-esz18-dar dub-sar ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0584. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P324338) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324338..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.